The Processionary : the Community 



family of the one and only mother. Here, 

 communism reigns, under certain aspects; but, 

 for the immense majority, motherhood is 

 forthwith abolished. 



Even so with the Wasps, the Ants, the 

 Termites^ and the various social insects. Life 

 in common costs them dear. Thousands and 

 thousands remain incomplete and become the 

 humble auxiliaries of a few who are sexually 

 endowed. But, whenever maternity is the 

 general portion, individualism reappears, as 

 among the Mason-bees, notwithstanding their 

 show of communism. 



The Pine Caterpillars are exempt from the 

 duty of preserving the race. They have no 

 sex, or rather are obscurely preparing one, as 

 undecided and rudimentary as all that is not 

 yet but must one day be. With the blossom- 

 ing of maternity, that flower of adult age, 

 individual property will not fail to appear, 

 attended by its rivalries. The insect now so 

 peaceable will, like the others, have its dis- 

 plays of selfish intolerance. The mothers 

 will isolate themselves, jealous of the double 

 pine-needle in which the cylinder of eggs is 

 to be fixed; the males, fluttering their wings, 



^White Ants. — Translator's Note. 



53 



